Jury Duty - Day 1

Monday, July 7, 2008
Today was day 1 of jury duty. I received my jury duty summons March 11th, but I postponed it until now. Several teachers that also received their summons served during the school year, but I didn't want to do jury duty during the school year. I'm one of those people who hates to take a day off of work.

Arrival time was 8:45a.m., however, I arrived at 8:30a.m. On the back of the summons, it gives the trains and buses that can be used to reach the courthouse, and will tell you which station/stop to get off, but beyond that, I was on my own. I got a bit confused and had to ask for directions, but I did arrived with time to spare. I even had time to take photo of the African Burial Site. I meant to return after jury duty, because it was closed when I walked passed this morning. Unfortunately, I'd forgotten.


Once I arrived in the courthouse, I went through the metal detector, an unfortunate sign of the times. To help pass the time, I brought a fell things. Those who have done jury duty know that it is mostly a lot of waiting. I had to leave my camera with the security guards, but I was allowed to bring my cell phone, mini TV, and radio with me. If my cell phone had a camera on it, I would have been allowed to keep it with me.

The juror's waiting room was on the 15th floor. Orientation was a 20 minute video and a Q&A. After that, it was about a 30 minute wait. Once the clerk received word that a trial was ready for jury selection, he had to send up a pool of potential jurors. The last time I had to do jury duty was over ten years ago, things changed a bit since then:

* We were told that if we did not get put on a jury, then we would be finished tomorrow. Last time, I was stuck in the waiting room for about 3 or 4 days.
* Now, the time between summons is about 4 years.
* The juror's waiting area is now internet ready with wireless connection.
* Judges and lawyers can now serve on jury duty (increasing the jury pool).
* Pay for jury duty is now $40 dollars per day for those not paid by employers. I don't remember what I received last time.
* According to the judge, jurors being sequestered is very rare.

After about 30 minutes of waiting, the clerk received an request to send up a pool of 70 potential jurors. To decide who went, each potential juror had a ballot part of his summons that was placed in a rotating type of barrel. The ballots were then taken out at random. And of course, I was included in the group.

The trial I was directed to was a trial between the People of New York and a young man (late teens or early twenties) accused of selling a small amount of crack cocaine. The judge introduced the participants. He even asked each one to stand and face the 70 jury pool members. The judge seemed just a bit nervous about addressing the crowded. He seemed to know his stuff, but just seemed a bit uneasy about addressing a large crowd. He apologized for the poor microphones several times, he sometimes picked at his fingers while he was addressing the crowd.**

** By the time this entry is posted, this trail will be over, so I think I can write about it.

First part was the selection process of the jury (12 jurors and 6 alternates), was a bit tedious. After the judge explained a bit about the case, and the responsibilities, sets of 12 potential jurors were placed in the juror's box. They same ballot box was used for the random selection. The judge asked a set of questions(the same exact question to each potential juror (the exact same questions), then the prosecutor asked questions, then the defense's attorney asked questions. Then, the process was repeated until the jury box was full. Luckily for me, I was in the first group of potential jurors. I was (tentative) jury number 12. In the room of 70 potential jurors, luckily, most of the participants seemed to be very nice and took their jury duty service very seriously. Only one guy seemed a bit hostile as he was asked questions. Although the selection process was random, the first (tentative) jury was an interesting group:

* The first row was almost entirely made up of actors, writers, or producers.
* The last two jurors were people of color (myself and a woman). And both of us were 3rd grade teachers.

So what happened when my turn came to answer the judge's questions(other than a lunch break)? Since I didn't live in Manhattan, I could not participate on the trial. Even though I work in the city, and almost all of my mail delivered to my foster father's place. And, I am still registered to vote in Manhattan, and my driver's license still has my old address. Even with all of that, I was told that I had to live in Manhattan. To be honest, I wasn't the least bit sad.

Sorry. I know jury duty is an important civic duty, but it is just sooo boring (lots of waiting time with the potential of getting stuck on a trial lasting several days if not weeks). Anyway, I was sent back to the juror's waiting area. I told the clerk in charge, but he told me to just stay and finish up my time rather than canceling the time I had already invested in today to be reassigned at another time. The clerk seemed like a nice easy-going guy.

Just when the jurors not chosen returned, the other third of the jury pool was about to be sent out, however, as soon as they left the waiting area, they were sent back because that trail was already resolved. At 3PM, the clerk said that usually if a jury selection hasn't started by 3PM, then jurors not chosen could leave. Another bit of good news was that we would not be needed for tomorrow's morning shift. Tomorrow, we won't have to be in the courthouse until 2:15PM because a new batch of potential jurors would be arriving tomorrow morning. However, the clerk did mentioned that if a trail was started in the afternoon, then we would be sent as the jury pool.

We were out by 3PM, so I decided to visit one of the gyms I searched online that had a boxing program. I mentioned (in a previous blog entry) about trying to visit one gym that was the closest to me, but the travel time too much(walking over a mountain to go workout). The gym I was visiting today was located near the train that I use travel to and from work. After some confusion with bad directional advice, I found the gym. A complete and utter waste of time.

I went to the gym to get prices for the group lessons or private lessons, but after wasting about a half an hour of my life, I got nothing. In the entrance way, there were no prices or brochures. One of the coaches took me into the office, and he talked my ears off, but gave me no useful information. No matter how much I tried to get a price, cost, or hours, the guy would go off on a tangent about this student or that student. He told me that he didn't discuss prices, the woman in charge of pricing did walk in, but she was busy and said that she would return in a few minutes, but she never did. The coach said he would give me a tour, but he never did. He just talked. He talked about the family atmosphere where kids can come and go. He talked about the open scheduling of the group and private lessons. But mostly, he just talked. A complete waste of time.

I attached a couple of photos I took of different courthouses in the area.


Post Date - Wednesday, July 23, 2008 11:06AM
Completion Date - Tuesday, July 8, 2008 1:04AM